AXIS – Axis shows the position of the cylinder and will be between 1 & 180

PRISM – This shows if you have a muscle imbalance in your eye

BASE – This shows the direction of the prism in your lens

ADD – This will indicate if you need a prescription for reading. Is applied to bifocal and varifocal lenses to correct presbyopia

Common layouts of prescriptions

Below are examples of prescriptions. The first set are standard prescriptions. Look through these to get a feel. Typed prescriptions are generally quite easy to understand, it’s mostly handwritten ones that cause problems.